FIG. 1 illustrates a conventional method of printing a facsimile transmission. As illustrated in FIG. 1, a document is prepared to be transmitted by a transmitter 100 to a receiving station or receiver 101 through a communication channel 110. In the example illustrated in FIG. 1, the document includes a cover sheet 1 and pages 1-4 (sheets 2, 3, 4, and 5) which are to be transmitted by the transmitter 100 to the receiver 101.
To facilitate the transmission of the document to the receiver 101, the transmitter 100 includes a scanner which scans the sheets 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 (cover sheet and pages 1-4) and converts the light reflected from the sheets during the scanning process into electrical signals which are digitized into image data representing, electronically, the images which have been scanned. This digital image data is then transmitted by the transmitter 100 along communication channel 110 to a receiver 101.
The communication channel may be a typical telecommunication channel, wherein the telecommunication medium is electrically conductive wires or an optic fiber transmitting the image data as light pulses, or the communication channel medium may be the air wherein the image data is transmitted either as microwaves or radio waves.
Upon receiving this digital image data, the receiver 101 converts the digital image data into electronic print data which is utilized by a digital printing device to print the image as scanned by the transmitter 100. In the conventional operations, the transmitter 100 scans in a simplex document and the receiver 101 prints a simplex document.
To give the user of the receiver 101 the option of cost savings with respect to consumable paper supplies, conventional facsimile machines have been recently provided with the option of duplex printing. Such an example is illustrated in FIG. 2.
The process illustrated in FIG. 2 is the same as that of FIG. 1 except for the printing process at the receiver 102. As illustrated in FIG. 2, if the user of the receiver 102 has selected the duplex printing option, the five sheet transmitted document received by the receiver is printed as a three sheet duplex document. More specifically, on sheet 21, the cover sheet (sheet 1) of the transmitted document is printed on one side of sheet 21 and page 1 (sheet 2) of the transmitted document is printed on the other side of sheet 21. Moreover, sheet 22 has page 2 (sheet 3) printed on one side of sheet 22 and page 3 (sheet 4) of the transmitted document printed on the other side of sheet 22. Lastly, sheet 23 has page 4 (sheet 5) printed on one side of the sheet and no image printed on the other side of sheet 23. Thus, by selecting the duplex fax printing option, the user of the receiver 102 can eliminate two sheets of paper, thereby realizing a savings in the use of consumable paper.
However, the selection of this conventional duplex fax printing option can cause problems. For example, as illustrated in FIG. 2, fax jobs typically contain a cover sheet as a first page. This cover sheet is intended to be used for routing purposes and to provide the receiver a total page count verification. More specifically, the cover sheet is not intended to be part of the set of transmitted original documents and is typically discarded by the recipient. Thus, when selecting the duplex printing option in a conventional facsimile machine, the incoming jobs are printed as duplex jobs. In other words, the first sheet to be printed contains the cover sheet on its front side and the first page of the principle document on its back side. Therefore, the recipient must keep the cover sheet as it contains part of the principle document on the back side. Such results can be undesirable for some applications, especially when the recipient wishes to use the faxed documents as originals.
Therefore, it is desirable to provide a duplex option which avoids the printing of the cover sheet on the same sheet as the first page of the principle document.